Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

Book VI. F I N G A L. 417
My Friends are with the Dead, and I forlorn
Sit at their Tombs, and o'er their Afhes mourn.
In Harmony thus joyful pafs'd the Night,
525 Till Break of Day reftor'd the beamy Light.
Then rofe Fingal^ and brandifhing in Hand
A fhining Jav'lin, ftrode along the Strand
To where our VeiTels lay : In Arms we came
Behind him glitt'ring, like a Ridge of Flame.
The
V. 524. In Harmony thus joyful pafs'd the Night, ^c] It is allowed by
the beft Critics, that an Epic Poem ought to end happily. This Rule,
in its mod material Circumftances, is obferved by the three moft defervedly
celebrated Poets, Homer, Virgil, and Milton ; yet, I know not how it hap-
pens, the Conclufions of their Poems throw a melancholy Damp on the
Mind. One leaves his Reader at a Funeral ; another at the untimely
Death of an Hero -, and the third in the folitary Scenes of an unpeopled
World. In this Refpeft Off an is much more fortunate : The Conclufion
of his Poem is ftridtly according to Rule ; and is every Way noble and
pleafing. The Reconciliation of the contending Heroes, the Confolation
of Cuthullin, and the general Felicity that crowns the Aftion, footh the
Mind in a very agreeable Manner, and form that Paffage from Agitation
and Trouble, to perfefl Quiet and Repofe, v/hich Critics require as the
proper Termination of the Epic Work.
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